PARIS: Officials of Japan and UNESCO confirmed Friday that fire-hit Shuri Castle in the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa will be kept on the Paris-based organization's World Heritage list.

In a meeting held at the UNESCO headquarters, Japanese state minister of culture Michiko Ueno and Mechtild Rossler, director of the UNESCO World Heritage Center, affirmed that the castle will not be removed from the list, Ueno told reporters.

Rossler said to Ueno that the World Heritage registration of the group of Shuri Castle-related assets will not be affected immediately by the Oct. 31 fire that destroyed the "Seiden" main hall and other key buildings at the castle in Naha, Okinawa's capital, according to the Japanese official.

Rossler proposed that UNESCO specialists be sent to Naha for the reconstruction of the main hall, Ueno said.

Ueno said she told Rossler that Japan will "make all-out efforts" to restore the castle.

JIJI Press